Prefaces — Paeng So and Pyo Yeon-mal表沿沫序
1Paeng So's preface — the green felt our family's descendants will keep for generations
筆苑雜記吾仲父四佳先生所著也。先生以文章大手。平生著述甚多。三國史節要。東國通鑑。東文選。輿地勝覽。皆受命與諸公同撰。而大抵皆出於公手。五行摠括。歷代年表。東人詩話。勝覽續集。滑稽傳。皆平居所著。而筆苑雜記亦其一也。蓋法歐陽文忠公歸田錄。又取國老閑談東軒雜錄而爲之。欲記史官之所不錄朝野之所閑談。以備觀覽。其有補於來世。夫豈小哉。用是見先生用心之勤學文之精。而凡所著述。我一家子孫世守之靑氈也。今請義城縣令兪侯好仁。鋟諸梓。欲與好事者共之。龍集丙午仲冬日南至。猶子奉直郞行吏曹佐郞彭召序。
The Piwon japgi was written by my second uncle (仲父), Master Saga (四佳). The master was a great hand at composition, and what he wrote in his lifetime is very much. The Samguksa jeoryo, the Dongguk tonggam, the Dongmunseon, and the Yeoji seungnam were all compiled at royal command together with the other gentlemen, yet for the most part they all came from his hand. The Ohaeng chonggwal, the Yeokdae yeonpyo, the Dongin sihwa, the Seungnam sokjip, and the Golgyejeon were all written while he lived at leisure, and the Piwon japgi is one of these. He took the Guitian lu of Ouyang Xiu for his model, and drew as well on the Guolao xiantan and the Dongxuan zalu in making it. He wished to set down what the historians did not record, and what court and country talked of at their ease, so that it would be there to look at. How small can its help to later ages be? By this one sees how diligent the master was in his care and how fine in his study of letters, and all that he wrote is the green felt that the children and grandchildren of our one house will keep from age to age. Now we have asked Magistrate Yu Ho-in of Uiseong to cut it in blocks, wishing to share it with those who love such things. On the day of the winter solstice, in mid-winter of the byeongo year, his nephew Paeng So, of the rank bongjingnang and serving as assistant section chief in the Ministry of Personnel, writes this preface.
2Pyo Yeon-mal's preface — it records in full what the national history did not carry
一日沿沫謁達城徐相公於四佳亭。出示所著筆苑雜記。仍命序引。沿沫公門人。又公之撰東國通鑑。承乏僚屬。功參編摩。公之奬與實深。義不可以文拙辭。謹奉以還。第簿書溷我。未遑披閱。暇日靜坐。讀過二三遍。其所著述。皆博採吾東之事。上述祖宗神思睿智創垂之大德。下及公卿賢大夫道德言行文章政事之可爲模範者。以至國家之典故閭巷風俗。有關於世敎者。國乘所不載者。備錄無遺。譬如塚發驪山珍貝盡獻。犀燃牛渚光怪難逃。讀之令人亹亹忘倦。蓋筆談談林下之聞見。言行錄錄名臣之實跡。而是篇殆兼之。豈若搜神雜俎等編。摘奇抉怪。誇涉獵之廣博。供談者之戱劇而止耶。余觀古之著書立言者。皆其所爲不行乎今。而欲行乎後世也。若得時行道。則不必事乎著書。惟公以文章道德。遭遇聖明。大鳴國家之盛。一時辭命。皆出其手。納誨啓沃。輝映簡策。行乎今者。旣已彪炳斑蔚。而又留神於著述。下筆成章。所著若通鑑勝覽年表詩話及時篇無非扶世道垂名敎爲重。一一可以行乎後。古人云。太上立德。其次立功。其次立言。此之謂不朽。非公之謂乎。成化丙午仲冬有日。門人通善郞掌隷院司議表沿沫序
One day Yeon-mal called upon Chancellor Seo of Dalseong at the Saga Pavilion, and the chancellor brought out the Piwon japgi that he had written, showed it to me, and bade me write a preface for it. Yeon-mal is the master's disciple, and when the master compiled the Dongguk tonggam I filled a vacant place among his staff and had a part in the work of compiling, so that his encouragement of me was truly deep. In duty I could not decline on the ground that my writing is clumsy, and I respectfully took the book and returned. Only, the papers of office troubled me and I had no leisure to open it, until on a free day I sat quietly and read it through two or three times. What he has written all gathers widely the affairs of our East. Above, it sets forth the great virtue of the ancestral rulers, who with divine thought and sage wisdom founded the dynasty and handed it down. Below, it reaches the virtue, the words and deeds, the writing and the governing of high ministers and worthy officers that may serve as models. It goes on to the precedents of the state and the customs of the lanes that bear on the teaching of the age, and to what the national history does not carry, and it records them all in full with nothing left out. It is as when the tomb at Mount Li was opened and every rare treasure came forth, or when rhinoceros horn was burned at Niuzhu and the strange lights could not escape. Reading it carries a man on and on and makes him forget weariness. The Bitan tells of what was seen and heard in retirement, and the Yanxing lu records the true traces of famous ministers, and this book all but joins the two. How could it be like such works as the Soushen ji and the Youyang zazu, which pick out the strange and dig out the uncanny, boast of the breadth of their reading, and go no further than furnishing sport for storytellers? As I see it, those of old who wrote books and set up their words all did so because what they sought was not carried out in their own day and they wished it to be carried out in later ages. Had they gained their time and put the Way into practice, they would have had no need to take up the making of books. But the master, with his writing and his virtue, met with an enlightened ruler and sounded aloud the flourishing of the state, so that the royal messages of that time all came from his hand. He offered counsel and watered the ruler's mind, and it shines out in the records. What is carried out in the present is already this brilliant and this rich, and still he gives his mind to writing, and when he sets his brush down a piece is complete. What he has written, the Tonggam, the Seungnam, the Yeonpyo, the Sihwa, and the pieces he writes from time to time, holds it weighty in every case to uphold the way of the world and to hand down right teaching, and each one of them may be carried out in later ages. A man of old said, "Highest of all is to establish virtue, next to establish merit, next to establish words. This is called not decaying." Is it not the master who is meant? On a day in mid-winter of the byeongo year of Chenghua, his disciple Pyo Yeon-mal, of the rank tongseollang and councillor in the Jangyewon, writes this preface.